This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

I have Firefox set to check for updates, but it never asks me to install an update.

  • 4 replies
  • 1 has this problem
  • 5 views
  • Last reply by LionelM

LionelM
LionelM
more options

When I open the About Firefox window it does not check for updates, but displays the Apply Update button. Clicking this closes Firefox and it reopens without applying the update. The update history is empty (although I have been using Firefox since v1). My PC is running Vista, and I am logged on as a user, not an administrator.

When I open the About Firefox window it does not check for updates, but displays the Apply Update button. Clicking this closes Firefox and it reopens without applying the update. The update history is empty (although I have been using Firefox since v1). My PC is running Vista, and I am logged on as a user, not an administrator.

All Replies (4)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

If files already have been downloaded then you need to remove the files in the updates and updates\0 folder.
You can delete active-update.xml and updates.xml as well if present. 

C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox\updates
(%LOCALAPPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Mozilla Firefox)

If there are problems with updating then best is to download the full version and uninstall the currently installed version.

Download a fresh Firefox copy and save the file to the desktop.

  • Uninstall your current Firefox version.
  • Do not remove personal data when you uninstall the current version.

Remove the Firefox program folder before installing that newly downloaded copy of the Firefox installer.

  • It is important to delete the Firefox program folder to remove all the files and make sure that there are no problems with files that were leftover after uninstalling.

Your bookmarks and other profile data are stored elsewhere in the Firefox Profile Folder and won't be affected by a reinstall, but make sure that you do not select to remove personal data if you uninstall Firefox.

LionelM
LionelM Question owner
more options

I have done as instructed. The Help >About Firefox screen still displays 'Apply Update' rather than 'Check for updates'.

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
more options

Did you find the updates folder?

If you see an "Apply Update" button then that means that files are already downloaded and in that case Firefox won't do another check.

Is the current update channel set to Release (Help > About) ?

LionelM
LionelM Question owner
more options

I have reinstalled Firefox from scratch, and deleted the updates files. After installing an old version it updates correctly, but then does not check for updates. I have found that changing the selected option for When updates are found from:

Ask me what I want to to do

to

Automatically download and install the update

fixes the problem

This suggests that there is a problem with the 'Ask me what I want to do' feature.